NEW DELHI: Days after competing groups of Harvard-linked Indians took opposing positions on protests against the Election Commission, more than 400 Indian-origin students, researchers and alumni associated with universities across 27 countries have issued a statement warning against efforts to erode public trust in constitutional institutions and attempts to replace democratic debate with street confrontation.Titled “Spare India from Anarchy”, the statement carries 402 names, including individuals linked to Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, Princeton, Yale and Columbia universities, as well as the London School of Economics, National University of Singapore and University of Toronto.The signatories allege that “a frenzy of election denial” and a preference for ‘street over Sansad’ have taken hold in some quarters. They argue that unfavourable election results are being used to question electoral procedures, adverse court rulings to cast doubts on judicial independence and even the armed forces are being drawn into partisan debate.“An unconscionable and devious plan of sowing seeds of doubt in Indian democracy has been hatched,” the statement claims, accusing unspecified groups of turning matters before courts into campaigns on the streets.The intervention follows a public disagreement among Harvard affiliates over the October 10 protests in Delhi against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. A group of around 100 Harvard-linked signatories criticised alleged police excesses and detentions, while 44 others subsequently warned against attacks on the credibility of constitutional institutions.The latest appeal widens that dispute beyond Harvard, though it does not name the Election Commission, the SIR exercise or the Delhi protests explicitly.Invoking BR Ambedkar’s warning about the “grammar of anarchy”, the statement says dissent remains essential to democracy but should not become a cover for undermining its institutions. It calls for resolving differences through “debate, discussion, dialogue and dissent” within the constitutional framework.
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The accompanying document says the signatories are based in, or have studied in, countries across four continents. It also makes clear that the listed university affiliations do not amount to endorsements by the institutions themselves.
